INDEPENDENCE-DAY-SPECIAL-2016

Those who wax lyrical about and shed tears over oppression and injustice in the country and the world — while at the same time remaining silent about the questions of capital, empire, state, and class — may appear to be sympathetic to the oppressed, but they actually side with the oppressor and the unjust in the final instance…

MOST people are not shocked at the crushing defeat by Pakistan as much as they are by the cheering support of Kolkata Bengali crowd supporting Pakistan. Most seem to have been expecting that this is One Bengal — and a large section of the media fed this idea — and that the Bangladesh cricket team represents that spirit….

JOY Bangla in those days had not been commandeered by any particular political party. It was a slogan we all used. Some took it more to heart than others. I was on a rickshaw heading towards mejochachi’s house, (she is mother of my footballer cousin Kazi Salahuddin, better known by his nickname Turjo). Seeing a friend on the road I shouted out Joy Bangla. Joy Bangla, he waved back…

HOSTILITIES of opposing forces — the Pakistan state — widened the path to rebellion in the Bangladesh people’s march to liberation. Part of a rationale for the rebellion found its base in the hostilities. The hostile acts were the only option available to the state machine of Pakistan at that juncture; otherwise, the machine would have opted for alternatives…

Time is a fluke, it is and it sometimes cracks, in a manner of speaking that is. It’s only a little short of 10 years now since October 2006, when Shamsur Rahman, ‘unquestionably the foremost poet’ of the new nation in Bangladesh breathed his last. He already seems to be half-forgotten, or even worse, is only recalled to ditch in the bins, however…